First Methodist Episcopal Church South

The following data is extracted from Pulaski County, Georgia, Churches and Chruch work.

The Methodist Church is, likewise, identified with the earliest history of Pulaski County. It was in November of 1805 that Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War, negotiated a treaty between the Indians and the Federal Government for lands between the Oconee and Ocmulgee Rivers. On December 15, 1808, the Georgia legislature passed an act creating Pulaski County from a part of this territory.

And in January of 1809 the South Carolina Annual Conference, which embraced all of Georgia at that time, created the "Oakmulgie Circuit." This circuit embraced Pulaski County. Within one month after the county was created and two years before Hartford was incorporated, the Methodist circuit rider was preaching in Pulaski. Preaching was done at cross-roads and homes of village and country folk. However, in 1819, the Methodists erected a church building several miles from Hartford, up the Milledgeville road. This Methodist Church building in Pulaski was located in the corners of lots of land numbers 249, 261, and 262 of the 21st District. The land upon which the church building stood was conveyed by warranty deed, July 22. 1819, to Messrs. John Carruthers, R. W. M. Wynne, and William McCormack, trustees (office clerk of court of Pulaski, Book G, pp. 1, 2, 3). The congregation located their building at a strategic point for those distant days and drew its members from the red lands as well as from Hartford and the wiregrass section of Pulaski. This congregation, with a strong membership for those times, and a church building as well, operated effectually, though so near a Methodist Church in Hartford. This church and the one at Longstreet constitute the cradle of Hawkinsville Methodism.

Source: Pulaski County, Georgia, Churches and Chruch work

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